The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1887-07-23

aid toleg r. hsd - follows from n Paso:
~ haHs Just returned from The scsns q
the only active volcano In North America
The trip vas one Of extraordinary hard
ship. sccomp lishsd IN the face OF obsta-
clss OF which the entire absence Of any
road. an arid desert Of over one hundred
miles acrcss. and the blazing Gun Of
tropical zone we're conspicuous fsaturss.
The volcano lies twelve miles. - the crow
dies, from Bavispe. In the state Of Sonora,
In the extreme northwest corner Of the
Msxiosn republic A rough sstimats vii
place abe distance from II Paso ~ -four
hundred miles, calculating on base line.
The rugged and desolats nature OF the
country, the infrsqusncy Of Its syringe,
and tho almost deadly heat that exists
there nine months out Of the twelve have
sffectuslly kept out the American pros
pcctor, although the noun tains are full Of
gold; and oven the hardy Mexican has
largely left II TO It's primal solitude. Here
and there are scattering villages Of which
Bavispe 10 a type. The town lies south
west Of Casa Grande and Is q heterogen-
sous collection Of adobe shantiss and
'jackais," half under and half above the
ground and rooted with brush. II con-
tains about twenty Ave hundred souls. II
YOU count q soul to each inhabitsnt. They
are SO miserably poor and live In condi-
ton OF such indoscribabls squalor aud
perpetual misery that their lot compares
unfavorsbly with tho wandering coyote,
their nearest neighbor.
ave went by way of the Carralitos
Hacienda, on the Britton. Davis ranch,
lying about due east of Bavispe. In the
state of Chihuahua. II was from this
point that the real journey commenced.
To conceive the fatigue and ardor of the
trip one must add blazing sun that
scared am shrivelsd the very granite,
parched and aikaii-lsden wind blowing at
midday and filling the throat with it's
smarting particles, and reflection from
the earth that was like the breath OF
furnace. We were well supplied with
wraps and tackle, which we had frequent
occasion to use, for although IT Is proven
bal that the burro can cross places where
angels fear TO tread, we were obliged TO
abandon our pack train almost at the
outset.
"The eighth day brought the explorers
into the vicinity OF Bavispe, but little
prior TO this we had the first intimation of
siesmic disturbance in the shape OF a
fuitering tremor OF the earth. These
shocks. which were slight and undulating,
Increased In frequency as We drew near
the town, until scarcely an hour elapsed
without repetition of them. We came
in sight of BavIspe about 10 o'clock in
the morning, and the first thing that met
orr sight was huddled encampment Of
several hundred people on the broad mesa
that TANKS the town. Bavispe itself may
be spoken OF in the past tense, for II no
longer exists. On the lat of last May,
just az the gray OF dawn, the villagers
were awakentd by a sickening shudder OF
the earth, followed 10y quick tremor that
reduced half of the adobes of the place
to ruin. Creeping out from the wreck
of their dwellings,, they sought safety on
the level ground, where sort of encamp
ment was formed, and thence in time the
entire village has migrated. Since that
morning of desolation and terror there
has been no day unaccompanied by an
earthquake.
sometimes IL has been so violent as
TO loosen masses of rock and opsn vast
assures i'm tho mountain side, aud some
times II is an almost imperceptible vibra-
tion, Tut never has il entirely ceased, and
the supersitious Mexicans have given
themselves up to tho apathy OF despair. Our
appearance, which in other times would
have convulsed the village with excite
ment, scarcely attracted attention. A few
half-naked men and haygard women s,rag-
gled out of their tenements OF brush to
meet u.s. but many merely glanced from
thsir open doorways and made no sign.
The town, or. rather. what was tho town.
looks like the broken toy villageof a child
There Is not horse left standing. Shat
tered heaps of adobes aud yawning holes
mark the site, and mingled In the ruins
are the few ensils of their domestic life,
for which a superssitious terror forbade
them to return. Many have gone toward
tho south, but the bulk Of the people are
far too poor to undertake journey which,
without resource means death. SO they
have camped within sight OF the wreck OF
thsir homes, in mute and pathetic help.
lessness. The mortality which attended
this disaster must have been great, but il
was almost impossitls to draw any OF the
people into conversation, and quite so to
obtain any sccurate Information. Over
twenty sunken places in the mesa marked
recent graves, and rs many more dead are
t,rnha IL, lu innr In fha rnina